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It has been an interesting year so far. There were adventures and mis-adventures. There were lonely evenings spent on unfamiliar beaches and crowded mornings spent at all-too-familiar homes. There have been sandflies and flying sands and we have surfed and slept and cooked and cried and laughed and lounged in more places than I can remember right now. But that's the idea of this blog, isn't it. To help us remember those times that otherwise would creep out of our heads and become lost amongst the multitude of memories.
I should start at the end of our New Zealand trip. We spent 2 days in Auckland and managed to sell Hauwie without any hassle. This German boy walked into the Backpacker's Car Market and coughed up the cash - thereby ending our worries and reconfirming the belief that when you keep a positive attitude, good things will come your way. After that it was a farewell-to-NZ-dinner at a nice little Turkish restaurant and the next morning we left the bunch of expatriated people at the backackers behind and I flew off to Hawaii.
Honolulu is a tourist trap with nasty-ass young ladies manning the counters at the few backpacker establishments available. After almost 2 days of sleepless traveling my nerves were frayed and I may have been less than my normal polite self, but I still cannot accept that the threat to call the police on me was justified. I ended up staying at a seedy-looking, but clean and safe, backpackers and went to surf Waikiki Beach the next morning. The waves were small and weak, but even so it was a wonderful feeling being out there in one of the most renowned surf spots in the world. Shortly after I set out for the North Shore and as soon as the 4-lane highway was behind us I could see the appeal that Hawaii holds for tourists. It is clean and the people are filled with a pride that is sadly lacking in other places we have been to. I spent my time on the North Shore surfing, eating, sleeping and making new friends. Most notably among them a fellow SAFA named Gavin Binder - a man filled with love, respect and all manner of good things. We drank a beer or two, braai-ed some meat and discussed like-minded topics. And so the two short days available to me sped by faster than they should have.
From there it was onwards to meet Caila in Canada - again. The time we spent in Canada deserves a page of its own. Between renovations and preparations and expectations and vocations it currently feels like it was as influential a time as our entire tenure in Taiwan - crammed into a very full 2 months.
